Shuttle Sprints Finisher

A Fat Burning Cardio Alternative

I get a lot of questions about what people should be doing for their cardio to help their results along. Here’s the deal: I’m not a huge fan of cardio. I think it’s a pretty inefficient way to train if you are trying to lose fat and if you’re time starved like most of us. Training should enhance your life, not take away from it. For that reason I always suggest some type of sprint session or even better, a finisher.

A finisher is just that, it finishes off your training session. These are great, because they will only take you about two to five minutes (rather than 45 minutes) allowing you to focus your energy and mental efforts. Plus, you’re going to rev up your metabolism, which allows for a more efficient fat loss result.

Training Recommendations

I recommend doing 3-4 weight training sessions each week. These can be either full body or an upper and lower split. You’ll also want to get 1-2 days of some type of conditioning. This could be a separate day on it’s own dedicated to conditioning (look back at some of my favorite sprint workouts). Or, as I will detail in this article, you can use a finisher at the end of your weight training session.

Shuttle Sprint Finisher

Today’s finisher is extremely simple, but not easy. This is a drill we used to do back in my college basketball days. The basketball court is 50 feet wide, so we used to have to get 17 sprints across the width of the court in one minute. Once across equals one sprint.

That’s my finisher challenge for you. All you need is 50 feet of flat, safe space and something to mark your spots. If you have cones, that’s great. If not, use water bottles or dumbbells. You are going to set the clock for one minute, sprint to the marker, touch it and then sprint back. Get as many as you can in one minute. Remember, this is an all-out effort. Don’t jog or coast and save your energy, because you only have to do one set.

Push yourself to do this once or twice a week at the end of your training sessions, and track your progress. Seventeen was the goal in my college days. I did this at the end of my session today and got 16, so I’ll keep pushing and get myself better each week.

I would love to hear your progress and your results with these, so be sure to leave a comment and then check back in on Facebook and let me know how it’s going.